Android App Ratings & Reviews

A Review of Organ Trail: Director’s Cut for Android

If you’re into Android gaming or mobile gaming in general you’ve probably heard of a little game that dropped last week by the name of Organ Trail: Director’s Cut. After spending the weekend killing of party members, scavenging, and dealing with my broken down station wagon it’s finally time to get down to business with our review of the Organ Trail.

If you grew up in the 80s or 90s chances are you played the original or some version of the classic PC game The Oregon Trail. The Organ Trail: Director’s Cut puts a Zombified twist on that classic as you still get to travel across the country, but in a present day setting during the Zombie Apocalypse. Starting out you’ll have to setup your group which consists of yourself and 4 traveling partners. You’ll get to choose some starting supplies before you set out, and you really need to think about what’s most important to you as you only get so much. My first time I went with food, gas, and a ton of ammo which wasn’t the greatest of choices to be honest as the supplies go fast and there’s no guarantee you’ll make it out alive when you go scavenging.

Once you’re stocked up and ready to head out the game takes over and your journey begins. You can stop the car anytime along the way, and you’ve got quite a few actions you can take when stopped. You’re able to rest, fix your car, scavenge for supplies, and trade if anyone’s around. If you’ve got a party member that’s been infected you can kill them off (in a very cool way) when stopped, and you can also talk to strangers to get a little info on what’s going on.

When you hit a city the same actions can be performed, but you’ll get some extra options as well like taking on jobs and selling supplies. Supplies can vary from city to city and the prices seem to vary as well. I’m sure you can make a little cash buying and selling along the way, but the easiest and funnest way to earn a little bread is by taking on jobs or scavenging. The Jobs tab lets you take on tasks like recovering crates and defending against bandits; your pay will vary from cash to parts or supplies. The jobs generally involve a mini-game of sorts, and the same can be said for scavenging.

One of my favorite things about the original Oregon Trail was where you got to hunt and the Organ Trail: Director’s Cut lets you do that by scavenging and with jobs. So far I’ve encountered at least 3 different types of mini-games on my travels, and there are probably more as they appear to be pretty random. The first type has you moving and shooting while collecting supplies while another has you piloting the car trying to knock down bandits on motorcycles or zombie dogs. The other one I encountered involves you ducking behind cover and trying to shoot bandits out of windows without being hit. I actually thought that one was the hardest until I encountered one involving a “Boss” of sorts which was totally unexpected.

Verdict

The Men Who Wear Many Hats must have had their Genius Hats on for The Organ Trail: Director’s Cut as they’ve made a classic game I loved as a kid fun again. Yeah it helps that I dig Zombies, but the game itself is very well done and polished throughout. The old-school graphics are just one of the things I love about the game, and the trajectory based shooting along with the random Zombie encounters are great as well. Overall, there’s nothing bad I can say about Organ Trail: Director’s Cut as it has a great premise, kick-ass retro graphics, tons of replay value, and hell… it’s a Zombified version of the Oregon Trail. If you love Zombie games, Retro Games or The Oregon Trail you’ve gotta’ pick this one up and if you don’t you’re really missing out on a fine Android game. If you’re ready to hit the trail you can head on over to Google Play and pick up The Men Who Wear Many Hat’s Organ Trail: Director’s Cut for $2.99.